Movie Theater, Offices Planned In Northampton

Tentative plans for downtown Northampton include a new movie theater and a building with office and retail space.

The buildings would replace the former H.A. Miller and Coleman department stores in the 2000 block of Main Street, which would be demolished to make room for the new structures.

The new movie theater would be built beside the Roxy, to allow a twin theater, according to the developer, Dr. George Angello, a Northampton optometrist. The commercial and office building would fill the remaining space.

Angello, whose development plans for the Miller building fell through last year when the borough lost a grant, said it would be too expensive to renovate the existing buildings. Both have been empty since they closed.

Demolition by Hanover Lines Inc. of Allentown is to begin Monday and is expected to take two weeks, according to Angello. Construction of the new buildings is expected to begin in June, with completion by the end of the year.

Acquisition of the existing buildings and parking lot behind them cost $375,000, Angello said. Total construction cost is not yet known.

The Coleman building had been owned and operated by the Coleman family from 1900 until it closed in 1983. It was by that time the oldest commercial establishment in the borough. The Miller store, owned and operated by the Miller family, was built in 1905 and closed in 1982.

At one time, the stores were the hub of the downtown shopping area and offered local shoppers food, clothing, hardware and garden items.

Since the decline of Northampton's downtown, Borough Council has attempted to rejuvenate interest in the area and has sought government grants to do so.

One grant, for $395,000 in federal funds, was approved and then frozen when McDonald's Corp. chose not to build a restaurant in the borough. The McDonald's money was needed because the borough had to show private investors were willing to contribute to the project. A second developer, Dale Kratzer, owner of Dale's Quality Market on Center Street, then announced plans to become part of the program, but also eventually withdrew.

The borough had planned to use grant money to buy the Miller building and resell it to borough businessman Richard Wolfe for development as a mini mall. The original plan called for a $237,000 investment by Wolfe and a $60,000 outlay by the borough.

The grant was finally rescinded in 1984 when the borough could find no other investor to take the place of McDonald's.

Northampton also tried for a $150,000 federal Community Development Block Grant in 1984, but Carl DiCello, then borough manager, said in April 1985 that he was told ina telephone conversation that the borough did not satisfy the requirements for people with low and moderate incomes.

The grant money would have been used to buy and improve the parking lot at the Miller store. Angello, who had proposed at that time developing the Miller store for office and retail use, said he was "very disappointed, but I am not surprised." Asked then where his plans stood, he said, "I really don't know."